By this time we have been gone a week already! I was missing the boys terribly at this point, so I was excited to get away to the Cinque Terre. We got up super early and got on a train for 3 1/2 hours. After arriving at the La Spezia train station, we then hopped on another train to the Cinque Terre villages. Cinque Terre means "5 towns" and is named so because of the 5 towns that make it up. Starting from the south you have Riomaggiore, then Manorola, Corniglia, Vernazza & finally Monterosso. You can either hike (approx 7 miles) or ride train to each of the villages. Most people start in the first town of Riomaggiore and work their way up, but we decided to start in the last town of Monterosso and work our way that way....not knowing it was the more difficult way to hike....ouch. We had originally planned to stop in Monterosso, get a hotel and hang out on the beach since its considered the "beach town", but upon arrival, it was pretty cold there, enough to warrant a jacket. So much for laying out at the beach. :-) The beach was a very rocky/pebbly one and the water was cold. Also, because of the cloudy/stormy weather, the waves of the Mediterranean were pretty fierce.....ok, scary. Besides the water being cold, there was no way I was going to face those waves because I knew who would win.
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| Monterrosso |
We decided to grab a little lunch at this outdoor cafe. Cinque Terre is known for their foccacia bread and o.m.goodness was it superb! The BEST foccacia I have ever had! I also got this spinach/cheese/potato pizza pie that was also unbelievable.
After a walk along the beach and a few pics, we decided to go ahead and hit the Cinque Terre trail and hike to the next town of Vernazza.
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| Monterosso |
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| all these large slabs of rock are granite. It's what the beach is made up of. |
Here we are on the trail and looking back at Monterosso.
The Cinque Terre trail was unbelievably beautiful. The hike was extremely difficult. I don't think I have ever done anything that hard. I joked with Josh and told him that it was harder than childbirth for me (with an epicural of course!). The views were amazing though. The trail was only a couple of miles to the next town of Vernazza, but it took us 2 1/2 hours!! We actually ran into several Americans on the trail who joked that there was no way that parts of that trail would pass in the Parks and Rec dept in the United States. It was carved out of the side of the mountains hundreds of years ago, so there were a few scary places where you really had to watch your footing. And hundreds upon hundreds of steps. That was the part that killed me. They weren't your normal steps either, very tall and far between.
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| on the trail between Monterosso & Vernazza |
And there are tons of little grape, olive tree, etc. "farms" on the mountains too, terraced so high. I can't believe how much climbing and work they have to do just to farm in these areas. Pretty amazing.
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| neat little door on the trail |
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| trail |
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| trail |
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| me crossing over a small bridge. I was looking pretty rough at this point. :-) |
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| looking back at Monterosso and how far we had traversed. |
So, after about 2 1/2 hours on the trail, we finally got sight of our next destination....Vernazza. Vernazza was very destroyed by a flood/mudslide last October, but after 8 short months (at that time in June), they had recovered remarkably! Notice the second picture...it's one taken after the flood/mudslides. Pretty unbelievable how far they had come. There were several businesses still closed or under contruction though.
Also, cars are unable to travel into the towns, so it was nice to wander around and not to have any traffic noise at night too.
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| Vernazza |
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| Picture of the Vernazza flood on Oct 25, 2011 |
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| a house on the hillside along the trail that was wiped out by the mudslides |
We were so exhausted and found a place to stay very quickly. We stayed right in the heart of Vernazza on the water at the Albergo Barbara. We got the "suite" which overlooked the town piazza and the Mediterranean. It was considered a suite because we got our own bathroom in the room rather than sharing one with other guests in the hallway. Good to know.
The view from our room....amazing. We literally laid down and fell asleep for like 4 hours!
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| view from our room |
That evening, we went down to the waterfront and ate at an amazing little restaurant called Gambero Rosso. it is owned by two older Italian brothers who talk and joke around with everyone while they are eating. It made for a really fun night. I got a fish/pasta dish that was amazing and Josh got a steak. Another stellar meal. For dessert I got the strawberry panna cotta and Josh got the chocolate cake. We sat next to a very nice couple from New Zealand who were on an 8 week vacation! Seriously. We had a nice evening visiting with them until around 10:30 pm.
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| View from our table. |
While we were sitting there talking to the other couple, the guys started noticing faces in the rock walls of the buildings. At first they thought they were crazy, but once they both realized the other was seeing it too, it became a fun game to find all the faces in the walls.
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| Do you see the face? |
I wanted to get some night shots of Vernazza because it was so beautiful. We walked around for a while just not wanting our night there to end. It was pretty perfect. We went back to our room and slept with the window open so we could just listen to the waves while we laid there. So peaceful, calming and relaxing.
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